In recent years, a wide variety of dry carpet treating compositions have become available. One such composition is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,449, and comprises a blend of an inorganic salt carrier, an agglomerating agent such as starch, fragrance and an anti-static agent. In compositions such as those disclosed in U.S. Published Application No. B433,707, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,434,067 and 4,194,993, the inorganic carrier salt is wholly or partially replaced by dry urea-formaldehye particles, which can function as absorbent carriers for cleaning solutions.
Although these compositions are designed to pick up dirt and leave a residue of fragrance or anti-static agent behind, they suffer from a number of disadvantages. In the first place, the use of fine particles of carrier salts or fragmented polymeric substances can lead to unacceptably high amounts of residual dust in and on the carpeting. This dust can soil shoes and clothing and give dark carpeting an unacceptable frosted look. Although dusting can be reduced by the addition of de-dusting agents such as mineral oils and glycol ethers, such agents can lead to increased soil adherence and counteract the cleaning and anti-soil properties of the powdered compositions.
In the second place, agglomerating agents such as starch, flour or talc are often employed to prevent undue scattering or "bounce" of the carrier and to promote even coverage upon application of the product to the carpeting. Such agents are disadvantageous in that they also act to promote clumping of the powdered product in the storage container, thus hampering its delivery, e.g. by sprinkling it from a perforated shaker. Finally, the dry-type products presently on the market which incorporate inorganic carrier salts cannot be used on damp or wet carpeting, such as that soiled by excreta, rainwater or food spills, since the salts partially dissolve and cake into a solid mass. Liquid-loaded plastic beads may be less severely affected by moisture, but since they are intended to deliver cleaning fluid to dry carpeting, they are ineffective in the presence of moisture.
Therefore a need exists for a particulate carpet treating composition which exhibits an affinity for wet soils, and which can deliver effective amounts of carpet conditioning and odoriferous adjuvants. Such a composition should also be easy to apply to the soiled carpeting and readily removable without frosting dry carpeting or caking on wet carpeting.